WATCH: Obama Tells Congress To Act Quickly On Immigration Reform

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Though immigration reform tops his legislative to-do list for his second term, President Obama was cautious in a speech in Las Vegas on Tuesday in support of the Senate’s proposed comprehensive immigration reform plan. By supporting the broad outline of the plan without being too explicit about the policies he’d like to see in the bill, the president said the foundations for reform are in place and have been accepted by Democrats like Ted Kennedy and Republicans like George W. Bush.

But the president did have a threat for Congress. He said if the debate goes on too long, he will send down a bill that explicitly lays out his plan for reform.

His principles include strengthening the borders, enforcement that cracks down on businesses that hire undocumented workers, a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants already in the country and an update to the legal system that speeds up immigration for skilled workers and separated families.

The so-called “Gang of 8″ in the Senate, made up equally of Republicans and Democrats, rushed to get their framework out Monday before the president, to give Republicans a chance to sell the plan to conservative media.

Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) appeared on Fox News’ Hannity on Monday evening and The Rush Limbaugh Show on Tuesday afternoon to assure Republicans that strict border enforcement must be a requirement in the deal before any immigrants are granted citizenship. Rubio was warmly embraced as Limbaugh set up the predicate for blaming the president if the plan fails.

The president agrees with most of the Gang of 8 framework, except on two crucial points. He opposes any “trigger” that would hold up the path to citizenship until certain criteria are met, and he also believes reform should treat same-sex families as… families.

Your probably right. Anything the Pres. likes John McCain will retreat as usual.

shirleysheltonrae

Dear Mr. President OBama,

I agree that we need comprehensive immigration reform, but it would be better for the immigrant to have a time limit to complete the process. For example, the process cannot last 20 years. Moreover, the penalties cannot be so costly where the immigrant cannot afford the fine. Most immigrants are on the lower echelon of the income scale. Furthermore, I understand, we need to make sure they right their wrong, but we do not want to make them feel this is a road to nowhere.

labrown69

The alternative to allowing “the process to take 20 years” is the American worker paying the fine. Ooops, he already has and continues to. How do ya think wages got down to next to nothing? How do ya think meat packing went from the highest to the lowest paid job in the industrial sector? Let”s be honest. This is not a Republican position. Both parties have caused this mess for their own reasons and now they are asking American citizens to pick up the tab for this too. The only solution that does not ask the innocent American citizen to bear the cost is deportation. Sorry .. wish I could offer you Utopia but that is just the reality. “When you are merciful to the cruel you are thereby cruel to the merciful. It’s as old as the Old Testament”!

stcroixcarp

The American worker’s wages are down to nearly nothing because corporations and the republicans have systematically destroyed labor unions and have attacked workers ‘ rights. They have outsourced good jobs to third world countries and ruined whole communities in the process. And don’t forget the vulture capitalists like Bain which “harvest” companies by leveraging them and laying off the work force then selling the assets. And these “job creators” get tax breaks for doing it. Don’t blame the immigrant, legal or illegal!

Havent you heard ? The Occupy Movement died under the weight of its own baseless platform and Rahm Emanuels Boot during the Nato Meetings in the Communist Occupoed Liberal Utopia once known as Chicago . guess you didnt get that memo

http://www.facebook.com/dominick.vila.1 Dominick Vila

Perhaps you missed it, President Obama was reelected, and Democrats gained seats in the Senate and the House.
The hoopla about strengthening border security, at a time when illegal immigrants are voluntarily leaving the USA to pursue opportunities in Mexico, is designed to address right wing ethnic/cultural hatred.
The solution to immigrants entering the USA illegally, regardless of how many or how few continue to do so, is not to erect more Berlin-style walls, but to change our immigration laws so that enough semi-skilled workers can come in LEGALLY to satisfy demand. What is the logic of an immigration law that allows Saudi WahhabistI terrorists to enter the USA legally via JFK airport, but denies legal entry to farmhands willing to work for less than minimum wage?
Immigration reform must address the status of children of illegal immigrants born in the USA, which should be clear for anyone able to read (14th Amendment). It must address the status of children of illegal immigrants who entered the USA as minors. It must address the status of illegal immigrants who have been in the USA for a long period of time and have not committed a crime while in the USA without erecting barriers, such as outrageous fines they cannot afford to pay. It must address the need to issue enough visas to allow the legal entry of semi-skilled immigrants; if we don’t mind professionals from India, Pakistan and other countries to come to the USA legally and get the best jobs our economy has to offer, we should not have a problem letting enough farm hands come to the USA to plant and harvest our produce for less than minimum wage. Last, but not least, we must address the issue of illegal immigration via our Northern border. Tens of thousands of Europeans, Middle Easterners and Asians enter the USA illegally every year from Canada. Most come with tourist or student visas and never leave.
Forget what the White Supremacists, KKK members, neoNazis, the Tea Party, and other hate groups want. We should listen to what the majority of Americans want, not what a tiny minority of ignorant zealots want.

You do realize how stupid you sound , right ? The KKK are mostly DEMS and they rest of your rant is beyond stupid .com

http://www.facebook.com/dominick.vila.1 Dominick Vila

The old Southern Democrats, some of who were, indeed, members of the KKK are now one of the most important components of the Tea Party. You, obviously, have not kept up with the changes that have taken place since the Civil Rights movement.

http://www.facebook.com/fern.woodfork Fern Woodfork

He’s Living In The Past Just Like His Party Of Thugs!!!

artolga

I’m a life long Democrat, as are most of my family and friends. I voted for Obama twice, I’m thinking that the second time was a mistake.

Out of my family and friends, maybe 25% are pro amnesty. Why can’t they do it legally? What makes illegals so special.

As far as the race card goes, that’s bs. The issue is either following the rules or only following the laws that fit our needs! White, brown, black or blue! illegal is illegal!

RobertCHastings

I also missed the memo that they had given you permission to stop taking your meds.

http://www.facebook.com/fern.woodfork Fern Woodfork

LOL!!!

labrown69

That is pure crap. In California, labor unions have actively recruited illegal workers so you can not reasonably suggest that low wages are purely a construct of right wingers taking advantage of slave labor. You have mingled several issues but here in my state, the reality is we were upside down with public employee pensions long before the economy began tanking in 06 and I was a union member for 30 years.

http://profile.yahoo.com/GGHNYPK4GNCRYZLXWVZ447WHJM Plznnn

The costs to American families from Millions of Illegals are hundreds of Billions annually: Health care, school costs, unemployment & low wages, crime, etc. We do have Laws and the open borders keep on attracting not only low-skilled labor that we don’t need, (23 Million Americans unemployed), but criminals, drug dealers, gang members, terrorists, people with diseases, etc. If the politicians pushing “another” Amnesty without the enforcement measures “again” (I know, they promised, lol), we will be discussing this mess again in several years. If they are so adamant about “comprehensive Immigration reform” (Amnesty), they should have not had any problems over the decades of securing our borders & passing mandatory E-verify First.

The U.S. has for many years led the world in LEGAL Immigration, if Illegal trespassers disregard our LAWS & the people waiting in line Legally, why should we AGAIN reward them with Citenship. We can discuss that AFTER the enforcement measures are well in place.

http://profile.yahoo.com/ZYLS3QMN3LXPGQNQHSSR5Y4YDA Lee

Mr. Brown 96, your comments are as intellectually sound as the squirrel who just landed in the trap. Do we have the troops, cops, etc., to round up 11,000,000 illegals and do we have the busses to round them up and haul them out? American citizens will pay for 100% of deportations as we have been doing for years. Who do you think pays for such government action? Most probably your parents and/or grandparents also were immigrants and they came here for the same reason that today’s immigrants come here, for a better life and freedoms they don’t have. Wake up Mr. Brown, be realistic and using 69 at the end of your name pretty well decribes your IQ.

labrown69

Lee you dunce – I am already paying for the incarceration of tens of thousands of illegals, and for the losses as a result of the crimes they commit for which they are incarcerated not to mention social services for those who don’t and the deterioration of our neighborhoods, our schools, graffiti removal etc. By your convoluted logic we should legalize bank robbery because we spend billions prosecuting and incarcerating them too. You are a penny wise, pound foolish baboon! My Grandparents WERE immigrants … legal immigrants who came through Ellis Island and were thus screened for diseases rather than bringing epidemics with them. Ever ask yourself why whooping cough and syphilis are making a come back? Here is your first clue: It is not spread by those attending soccer tournaments. Your simplistic thinking is not “thinking” at all and as for my IQ, it’s way over your head if you can call that sphere resting on your shoulders which resembles a melon, a head. Oh, and by the way if we bring the troops home from Afghanistan like we should have several years ago, we can string them from San Diego to Louisiana with orders to shoot anything that moves north and that will both solve the immigration problem and provide shovel ready jobs.

labrown69

Maybe a better answer is: your comment about squirrels in traps” is a real dumb analogy and in answer to your question “do we have the cops and troops”, the answer is clearly yes! The answer is not to go door to door like the Gestapo. The answer is to allow police and ICE to do their job and in the course of daily interaction when someone turns out to lack documentation, deport them. If we did that a little at a time, others would stop coming. Someone is going to suffer from this situation and I believe it should be those who broke the law, not those who obey it.

jointerjohn

This is a scary topic for today’s republicans. An examination in the red states might reveal that Maximo Chavez is working two jobs and feeding his family while sixth generation Billie Joe Ray Jim Bob Ledbetter is paying doctors to sign S.S.I. papers on behalf of his defective children. That would sure screw up that 47% argument!

You seem to be really biased and hate White people …What does Bllie Joe have to do with this ? Or are you just showing off your Liberal intolerance in the form of being progressive Pc to your friends …EPIC FAIL

labrown69

Ok, so the GOP, and in fairness, both parties, have discovered immigration.

Members of the Tea Party touting immigration reform, sound like “cancer patients hawking cigarettes”.

Like most of what comes from Washington DC, the entire debate is based on phony numbers and premises. I heard Geraldo Rivera tell Marco Rubio, “we have to do something about the 11 million people who are here illegally”! “11 million”? Are you kidding me? They were using that number at least a decade ago at which time more honest studies had already concluded the number was closer to between 20 and 30 million.

Illegal immigrants continue to outpace the number of legal immigrants coming here, a trend that’s held steady since the 1990s. While the majority of illegal immigrants continue to concentrate in places with large Hispanic communities, increasingly illegals are settling throughout the rest of the country. Locally, we have cities off the 605 freeway in which the population is almost entirely illegal.

Environmentalists publicly express concern about the water available for the Delta Smelt but they ignore the epidemic illegal dumping of trash, abandoned vehicles and often toxic substances giving much of rural America the appearance of a banana republic. Government regulators turn a blind eye to this, presumably because you can’t squeeze blood from a turnip and why pursue illegals when middle class businesses are an easy mark, “low hanging fruit” with money to extort.

“Cal Fresh”, is the current euphemism for food stamps and as long as the entire debate is conducted in euphemisms we will never address the real issues.

You are not going to hear this from most politicians who are slobbering over votes but as it stands, we will resolve nothing because the entire dialogue is pure baloney.

for once you would think that Liberals and Conservatives could find some middle ground but the Libs are just so full of hate and intolerance they are all on here just hating instead of saying somnething like …wow finally some middle ground …This wanst directed at you Labrown just commenting in general

charleo1

The reason Libs don’t say, wow common ground, is because there is not a
snowball’s chance any acceptable immigration reform will make it past the
Radical nut jobs in the House of Representatives. As far as Liberals being
hateful, and intolerant, that’s one of the worst case of transference I’ve ever
heard. Remember the uproar aganist a mosque near Ground Zero? That wasn’t
very tolerant. Or the Republican primaries? Where it became a running
joke, what each candidate would do to stop Mexicans from coming across the boarder. One said he’d build a taller fence. The next one would say, and I’ll
electrify it. Remember? Well, I’d dig a moat, the next said he would put alligators
in it! Remember all that tolerance, and good will? They just yucked it up
all the way to election day, when they got their rear ends handed to them
by the Hispanic vote, which they lost by over 50 points. I guess not everyone
shares a Republican’s sense of humor.

Rest Assured that whatever plan Marco Rubio John McCain and even tricky Dicky pile of Durbin come up with that Obama will take full credit for it and the sheeple and their media will give him full credit . What he should do to show he is above the fray and that he is actually willing to work with the Republicans rather then just blame and villianize them would be to give them due credit . That wont happen with Obama’s Weak Mind and his massive arrogant EGO . He is not a leader . He is a divider

montanabill

He needs to butt out. Congress is moving and hopefully will come up with a better solution than Simpson-Mizzoli of 1986, which called for border enforcement and amnesty. It operated exactly like Democrat promises to cut spending in exchange for higher taxes on the rich. We got amnesty, but no border protection. Just like we get higher taxes, but no spending cuts.

RobertCHastings

“Today, illegal crossings are down nearly 80%”, from 1.2 million per year to less that 400,000. Due to several factors, such as greater security on the boarder, the wall and tech aspects are getting closer to completion, Mexico’s economy is improving (at least as fast as ours is), and, due to our recession, the jobs are not here. And don’t forget that in Obama’s first four years he deported more illegals than Bush did in both of his terms. And yet idiots like Rush Limbaugh say that Obama is not doing his job on immigration? Sure we should not just GIVE them citizenship, it should be something they should work for and earn. Which brings up another point. How many of us could pass the simple test immigrants take in order to qualify for the citizenship oath? How many of us know basic Civics, how the government works, what is delineated in the Constitution, our rights and responsibilities as citizens of the US? Are all of us REALLY qualified, by anything other than birth, to be American citizens? We sure like to talk the talk, but not that many can really walk the walk.

bchrista

Labrown 69 I don’t know what Union you belonged because I will be the first to admit that Unions have a few not to nice group of people that belong to the Unions however I never heard anyone complaining about treatment from them, to them this was a way to funnel their money that they got from running illegal whiskey. It didn’t affect me so I kept my nose out of it, and they did a good job of negiotating a decent wage for us they also got us a good medical and dental program and as far as recruiting illegal workers, the Union bosses knew that any illegal activities on there part would bring the Feds down on them, so for this part of their lives they played it straight no hanky panky. they didn’t want the heat. I too was a Union member, Of The Brotherhood Of Carpenters And Jointers of America for over 30 years.

dalnb

I would support our president as I did in two elections but there is no way I can support his efforts to give amnesty in any way for those illegals who have chosen to ignore and disobey our laws to come and remain here. They are by all definition “Habitual Criminals!” They became criminals the minute they illegally entered our nation or failed to leave when their sanctioned visit expired. Everyday they remain here they compound that crime. An American committing as many crimes is known as a Habitual Criminal and can be imprisoned as such. Rather than treat the illegals as such though we imprison our own and fail to punish the illegals.

I have agreed with the President, with Bush, John McCain and the dozen others who repeatedly over the past dozen years that our immigration program needs overhauled. They though instead of doing so have allowed the errors to continue and the millions of illegals to continue coming into our country. Now rather than take responsibility for not doing their job they want to find all kinds of justifications for just letting the illegals remain here.

President Reagan tried that allowing amnesty for the illegal. All that accomplished was sending a message to the rest of the world that they too could come to the greatest nation in the world and they will get amnesty. Doing it again now will only invite additional hoards of illegals into our nation.

The immigration laws clearly define a “Path to Citizenship” into our nation. The Immigration plan needs updated simplifying and speeding up the process for those who want to legally come into our nation. We do not tough need to turn our backs on our laws; We CAN NOT accept amnesty for the millions who refuse to obey our laws.

http://www.facebook.com/jerry.beck.9659 Jerry Beck

A very complex issure.

artolga

Why is it called comprehensive immigration reform when it does nothing for legal immigrants? All it seems to be is an amnesty program for those who chose not to follow our laws.

The legal alien has to wait until they are invited into our country. They usually wait about 8 years in their country of origin, they pay for a police background check, physical exam, as well as an expensive Homeland Security check.

I hope the fines are high enough for illegals to atleast equal, without exception the checks and exams that legals pay.

I also believe that legal aliens should be able to pay for their police background check, physical exam, and Homeland Security check, then wait their turn in the United States just like we seem to allow illegals to do via defered deportation.